Durango Real Estate Comparative Statistics 2019-2020 Full Year

Hind site is 2020

Durango Real Estate Comparative Statistics 2019-2020 Full Year synopsis. Well, we finally made it through 2020 and I think just about everybody is glad that it is in the rearview mirror now. That said, real estate had an extremely unusual year last year. I notice that for weeks at a time in the spring, we were not even allowed to show land or homes and then when we could finally show property we couldn’t even be in the same car with the client. However, we all adapted, and the year ended up like a barn burner for the last 6 months.  Total residential sales increased by $243 million (46.8%) when comparing 2020 to 2019. Total County sales (residential, land, farm and ranch, commercial) total $908 million for 2020 up 48.6% from 2019!
There are a couple of very big stories in my statistics that we need to look at.  In the $800,000-$1 million price brackets, 100 houses sold in 2020 compared to just 34 in 2019 that’s a 194% increase. In the $1 million and up price bracket 98 homes sold in 2020 compared to 49 in 2019 which is an even 100% increase.
Taking the “average sale price” in both of those categories and multiplying it by their respective unit increases, they total $134,929,000 which is 56% of the entire increase. Drilling down through the next 2 price brackets shows that there was a 53% increase in the number of units sold in the $600,000-$800,000 price bracket and a 34.5% increase in the $400-$600,000 price bracket. Singing the exact same theme as I did during the 3rd quarter,  lack of inventory for sale is a major problem. Last year there were 495 units available-for-sale at the beginning of 2020 while this year there are only 185 units available-for-sale which is a decrease of 62.6%. Just look at the chart and see how many units, by price bracket, are available – and then compare that to the number of units sold in the last year. We just don’t have inventory. As I have said before, basic Econ 101 says that as inventory goes down and demand goes up prices will have to rise. I see no change in that truism. Total number of units sold across all market segments total 1409 homes which is an increase of 301 properties or 27.17% over 2019.
Resort sales in the Purgatory area have done quite well with a total of 157 units sold which represents a 50% increase over last year. Maintaining the theme that you see above, the $800,000 and up price bracket at Purgatory saw substantial increases. Not seen in any of these numbers, but very relevant, is the fact that we are seeing more and more
buyers demanding high-speed Internet. Rural subdivisions that only offer DSL, and oddly enough some don’t even offer that, will be low on the list of buyer choices. So many people this last year have had to work from home and a lot of companies are finding it’s less expensive if the people do work from home. The difficulty truly is getting that high-speed Internet dealt with.